Mike Bazzy said he wants the city of Bradenton Beach to meet the needs of its boating community.
An attorney for Bazzy and his father, Allan Bazzy, owners of Bradenton Beach Marina, filed a lawsuit in 12th Judicial Circuit Court Nov. 20 to halt the city from allowing tenants to occupy the Historic Bridge Street Pier.
The Bazzys named three defendants: the city; We’re Back, the corporate entity of restaurateur John Horne’s AMOB pier restaurant; and Tevatan, a limited liability corporation operating Paradise Boat Tours, one of the proposed tenants. Other tenants sharing a unit are a jewelry store and a boutique.
“I don’t think that using the harbormaster building at the pier for a jewelry store is advancing the needs of the boating community,” said Bazzy, who has managed the marina for 20 years.
Bazzy, whose father established the marina about 35 years ago, said his family goes back to a time when there were no sidewalks in Bradenton Beach and when not all the roads were paved.
“We’ve seen the community grow up and develop,” he said, adding that although the pier reopened in 2007 and the city had intentions to sanction a mooring field to service boats and the boating community, “it hasn’t come to fruition. We sincerely would like to see the anchorage improved by offering services to the boaters there.”
The Historic Bridge Street Pier is less than three blocks from Bradenton Beach Marina at 402 Church Ave. Bazzy said his vision will require cooperation between a private marina like his and the city — and on-site management.
“A harbormaster, equipment and boats,” Bazzy said, are just some of the needs.
Helping the city by having his company manage a mooring field at the pier was one of the elements of Bazzy’s proposal in July to the city commission to lease the restaurant and two retail units. Anna Marina Oyster Bar president John Horne won the bid for the restaurant and then received control over the two retail units through negotiations with city attorney Ricinda Perry and former Mayor Jack Clarke.
Bazzy said the lawsuit seeks what he’s asked for all along, that the city put the two retail units out for their own separate requests for proposals, as promised, rather than give them to Horne, who did not bid on them. Bazzy would like an opportunity to bid on them and present his plan.
“If the city turns it down, they turn it down,” he said.
Bradenton Beach Mayor Bill Shearon said Nov. 21 he had not seen the lawsuit, but he said he’s disappointed any time someone sues the city.
Paradise Boat Tours Capt. Sherman Baldwin said “it’s preposterous and spurious that I am named in the lawsuit.”
Efforts to reach Horne Nov. 21 by text message were unsuccessful.
See related Bradenton Beach pier vendor story, page 8.